CCKA's 2026 Priorities for Clean Water

CCKA’s 2026 Priorities for Clean Water

January 28th, 2026

As California enters 2026, the stakes for our water could not be higher. Climate-driven extremes, aging infrastructure, industrial pollution, and inequitable water governance continue to threaten rivers, beaches, and communities across the state. California Coastkeeper Alliance (CCKA) and our Waterkeeper organizations are meeting this moment with a focused, strategic agenda grounded in science, law, and environmental justice.

Our 2026 priorities reflect a simple principle: clean water laws only work when they are enforced, equitable, and sound. Through legislation, litigation, coalition-building, and advocacy, California Coastkeeper Alliance is committed to protecting the waters that sustain our communities and ecosystems. Together, we can ensure California’s water future is resilient, just, and clean.

Protect California from federal attacks on clean water protections. The 2023 U.S. Supreme Court Sackett v. EPA decision stripped many California streams and wetlands of federal Clean Water Act protections, and the Trump Administration has doubled down on these rollbacks. Last year CCKA introduced the Right to Clean Water Act, a bill to protect California’s waters by providing the state with the same Clean Water Act tools it had before Trump and Sackett. In 2026, we will push the bill over the finish line to uphold California values.
Set California’s clean water agenda. 2026 is a pivotal year for shaping California’s long-term water policy. We will work to inform the state’s water platform so it reflects the realities of climate change, prioritizes watershed health, and centers community resilience, water affordability, and ecosystem protection.
Launch an education and enforcement campaign to save salmon and steelhead from 6PPD exposure caused by tire-wear. 6PPD is a chemical used in motor vehicle tires that poses an extreme threat to salmon and steelhead populations. In 2026, CCKA will build an education campaign to inform decision-makers about where 6PPD is the most prevalent and the dangers that tires pose in our streets and playgrounds, while also advancing creative litigation to prevent 6PPD exposure to salmon.
Enact a Statewide Commercial Stormwater Permit. Stormwater pollution from commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) properties remains one of the largest unregulated sources of water quality degradation in California. In 2026, we will take a two-strategy approach to regulating commercial stormwater by (1) filing petitions in various watersheds to compel regulation under the Clean Water Act, and (2) securing passage of legislation to authorize a statewide CII stormwater permit. Either path moves California ultimately toward fair, enforceable, and effective stormwater regulation.
Bring together clean water advocates and decision-makers across California. CCKA will organize a California Waterkeeper Conference to align strategy among Waterkeepers, legislators, regulatory decision-makers, Tribal partners, scientists, and legal experts. The conference will strengthen statewide coordination on clean water enforcement, climate adaptation, and equity-driven water policy.
Develop water quality standards to prevent ocean acidification dead zones and harmful algal blooms. Top scientists have demonstrated that nutrient pollution from sewage wastewater discharges causes acidic hot spots and toxic algal blooms along the Southern California coast – creating inhospitable ‘dead zones’ for marine life. CCKA is working with state decision-makers to develop an Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Policy that will set water quality standards that stop nutrient pollution and hot spots along the California coast.
Win critical court decisions to advance environmental protections. We are actively litigating several cases with statewide implications:
- Central Coast Agricultural Order 4.0 Case – For decades, California has allowed farmers to excessively fertilize, which poisons local communities’ drinking water. In 2023, the state stripped the first and only agricultural permit of requirements for farmers to apply a responsible amount of fertilizer to their crops. CCKA is working to require the state to put back enforceable fertilizer limits to protect farming communities’ drinking water.
- Sonoma Public Trust Groundwater Case – Local governments have historically failed to acknowledge the interconnection of surface and ground waters. Counties give out permits to pump groundwater with impunity, lacking any oversight to protect surface flows. CCKA is enforcing existing public trust laws, including Sonoma County’s duty to protect instream flows from excessive groundwater pumping.
- Lopez Dam Endangered Species Act Case – San Luis Obispo County once supported some of the largest runs of Southern steelhead in the state. Today, it is rare to see Southern steelhead in the wild. For thirty years, the County of San Luis Obispo has violated the Endangered Species Act by operating Lopez Dam in a manner that threatens to wipe out the region’s steelhead population entirely. CCKA is working to ensure the County changes its operations to release sufficient flows of water from Lopez Dam at specific times of the year and commits to other essential habitat enhancements to protect steelhead trout.
Make California’s water rights system more equitable. California’s water rights system is based on the “first in time, first in right” principle, yet has historically overlooked the true first inhabitants of this land and original water users: California Native Americans. This complete oversight, coupled with state-sponsored actions that removed Native Americans from their lands and their waters, has systematically excluded Tribal Nations from crucial decision-making processes concerning our state’s waterways. CCKA will work with Tribal Nations to introduce legislation that addresses the state’s historic racism and ensures sufficient water flows to protect cultural resources.
Define and map freshwater beaches. Unlike California’s coastal beaches, our freshwater recreation areas are under-resourced and under-monitored. In 2026, we will define and map freshwater beaches to ensure these recreation sites receive appropriate monitoring, public health protections, and investment to improve Californians’ freshwater enjoyment.
Stop ongoing marine life destruction from the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Facility and ensure marine life mitigation funds are used to remediate the facility’s harms. The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Facility draws in massive amounts of seawater daily, directly killing marine life at its intake points, and later discharges huge volumes of heated water into the ocean. As a result, the facility creates 50 square miles of marine life destruction. In 2026, CCKA will challenge the Clean Water Act permits that allow this destruction to continue. We will also work to ensure that Diablo Canyon’s mitigation fees are used to restore the marine life that is harmed by the facility. California’s clean energy transition must not come at the expense of marine ecosystems or environmental law.